This invention relates to an improved landing shoe pad for helicopter landing gear skids.
A conventional skid-type landing gear used on helicopters, comprises a pair of elongated tubular ski-like skids which are fastened to the fuselage by means of struts. The skids are located beneath the helicopter and, in essence, form a pair of parallel tracks upon which the helicopter can land and be supported. In addition, during forward or rearward movement of the helicopter upon the ground or runway, the skids may engage the ground for short times, functioning like skis.
Because the skids of the helicopter landing gear frequently are in moving contact with the ground or runway, they wear out rapidly, particularly due to the high friction generated during such contact. Thus, attempts have been made in the past to protect the ground-engaging surfaces of the skids to increase their life. Thus, shoes or channels have been fastened to the bottoms of the skids and in some cases, steel bars have been fastened along the lengths of the channels to act as steel edged ground contacting rails. However, this shoe and pad construction, although lasting longer than the unprotected skid, also wears rapidly and additionally, tends to crack or break under impacts.
Thus, the invention herein relates to an improved pad which very materially increases the wear life of the skid and the skid shoe and also tends to reduce impact caused cracking or breaking of the landing gear, the skid and the pad. It also, unexpectedly, has an effect in reducing the friction due to the ground-engaging contact.